WASHINGTON – U.S. citizens suffer from poorer health than nearly all other industrialized countries, according to the first comprehensive government analysis on the subject. Of 17 high-income countries looked at by a committee of experts sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the United States is at or near the bottom in at least nine indicators. These include infant mortality, heart and lung disea ...

By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist Who is surprised that Lance Armstrong was doping?  Who thinks he was the only one?  Who is surprised that he used the Oprah Winfrey show as his platform to “come clean”?  We are a nation of cheaters and Armstrong is one in a long line of our nation’s cheaters. Indeed the very foundation of our country is the result of cheating. The Pilgrims cheated the Native Americans th ...

By Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist “I miss you baby girl. Sweet caramel princess. African American, Puerto Rican Canadian with a wee bit of Irish…We will honor your classmates you loved so dearly too. As well as the teachers and staff. Love wins.” — Nelba Marquez-Greene, the mother of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim, Ana Grace Marquez-Greene As we begin 2013, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the maj ...

by Teria Rogers Special to the NNPA from theAfro-American Newspaper On a recent Thursday, evening at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, music minister Byron Cage counted down the tasks he needed to complete in preparation for an evening service. On this particular night, he readied for a special men’s worship service featuring Bishop Walter Scott Thomas and his men’s choir from ...

After sparking widespread rumors of a comeback after the release of  “The Bravest Man in the Universe,”  album soul singer Bobby Womack has announced that he’s experiencing early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. “The doctor says, ‘You have signs of Alzheimer’s, “it’s not bad yet, but it’s gonna get worse” Womack revealed. Womack, 68, admitted that he’s having trouble remembering things, including the name o ...

Russell Simmons will throw a second hip-hop ball to celebrate the genre’s influence in the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama. The music mogul organized the Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball after President Obama became the first African-American to be voted into the White House in 2008. The event took place following Obama’s official inauguration ceremony in January, 2009, and it honored rappers T.I., LL Cool ...

Special to the NNPA from the Los Angeles Sentinel Brandy Norwood was a huge fan of Whitney Houston and one year after her death, the singer is still in shock. Looking back on how the late Whitney’s life transformed before the world’s eyes, Brandy supposes it was the loss of her voice that eventually drove Whitney over the edge. “I understand what that [losing your voice] feels like,” Brandy told The Boom Bo ...

By Frank S. Washington Santa Monica, Calif., -- Four out of five cars sold in the U.S. last year were midsize sedans. And Ford is making a serious push to get a bigger slice of that market which is expected to grow even larger. The Fusion is a global car. Ford will produce it and its sister model, the Mondeo, in Flat Rock, Mich.; Hermosillo, Mexico; Genk, Belgium; Russia and China. We came here to test driv ...

By Maya Rhodan NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Although Black and Latina youth represent only 35 percent of all U.S. teenagers, they accounted for 84.4 percent of all newly HIV-infected teenagers in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blacks ages 13 through 24 accounted for more than a quarter of new HIV infections in 2010 in the U.S. Of the newly-infected in ...

by Perry Green Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody in the history of football with the combined skills and talents that RGIII has. He’s the total package!” Those were the words legendary Howard University Sports Information Director Ed Hill Jr. used to describe the impact of Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. In fact, that’s how ...